24 de out de 2007

Hero, a film starred by Japanese star Takuya Kimura, is now in its sixth week of being the top box office winner in Japan. Released on September 8, the movie has already attracted 5.5 million cinema-goers, profiting over 7 billion Japanese yen. It scored the highest out of all the Japanese movies this year, defeating another Kimura's production Bushi no ichibun.

In 2001, Kimura starred in Hero's TV drama series. Box office takings for the movie are expected to keep growing, exceeding Limit of Love: Umizaru, which recorded the highest box office in 2006.

The movie Still Life by Chinese director Jia Zhangke won the top prize - best international feature film - at the Valdivia International Film Festival held in the city of Valdivia, Chile. And actor Han Sanming, the main character in the film, won the best actor award.

The Tigers Are Back - Andy Lau, Miu Kiu Wai, Felix Wong and Kent Tong, 4 of the the former "five tigers of TVB," (Hong Kong TV Channel) are together again in brotherhood tale Brothers, a typical Hong Kong crime thriller, directed by Sung Kee Chiu.

16th Golden Rooster and Full Blossom Film Festival News(from October 23 to 28, Suzhou, China)

Waiting Godot - Director Wong Kar-wai will take his Cannes opening film My Blueberry Nights to Suzhou, China to attend the upcoming Golden Rooster Awards. But apparently,
only the trailer will be shown at the festival. The film assembled a star-heavy cast for his first English feature, including Norah Jones, Rachel Weisz, Jude Law and Natalie Portman.

THC asks: do you want to watch My Blueberry Nights at the movies, or will you wait the DVD?

Funny Lady - Zhang Ziyi, the 2004 Golden Rooster best actress winner for the poignant filmJasmine Women, will star in the opening short film of this year's Golden Rooster Awards, acting against Liu Ye and Ge You, both of whom are Golden Rooster best actor winners.

The three-minute comedy is directed by Chinese-American filmmaker Dayyan Eng. The China Central Television (CCTV-6) is in charge of producing the awards gala, and will air the show live on October 27.

Romantic feature The Knot grabbed eight nominations for the upcoming Golden Rooster Awards. The film's director Yin Li is in competition for the best director award with Tokyo Trial director Gao Qunshu and four other rivals.

19 de out de 2007

Fireflies in the Gardenmay be Dennis Lee's first feature film, but the Korean American director just snagged Hollywood heavyweight, Julia Roberts as one of his leading ladies. Roberts joins a cast that includes Ryan Reynolds, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Emily Watson.

Written and directed by Lee, Fireflies in the Garden is a semiautobiographical drama about a family struggling to deal with unexpected tragedy. Dennis Lee was 29 when he enrolled in the master’s course in film studies at Columbia University in New York after studying politics at ChicagoUniversity. His maternal uncle is novelist Choi In-ho.

A story of the love between family members facing an unexpected tragedy, Fireflies in the Garden is semi-autographical. Lee confesses he found it very difficult to come with the loss of his mother, who died in a traffic accident eight years ago. The film, which begins with the scene where the mother (Julia Roberts) is involved in a traffic accident, is dedicated to the memory of his mother. “It seems that the only thing that lasts forever in life is parents’ love for their children. I dedicate the film to my deceased mother,” he says.Source: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...802110014.html

15 de out de 2007

Of the 11 films in the fest's only competitive section, New Currents, prizes of $30,000 were each awarded to Chinese-South Korean production Life Track, Malaysia's Flower in the Pocket, and Thailand's Wonderful Town.

At the press conference today, Mehrjui made a point of mentioning three other movies that generated jury discussion: Filipino street-kid drama Tribe, Taiwanese criss-crosser God Man Dog and Japanese drama Asyl.

NEW CURRENTS AWARDS

Life Track(Gueh-Do)
Writer-Director: Jin Guang Hao / Producer: Jang Ryul , China-S. KoreaLife Track, a static rural drama about an armless man and a mute woman on the run from police.

Flower in the Pocket by Liew Seng-tat, MalaysiaFlower..., a slow-moving item centered on two schoolkids with speech impediments, saw many international crix bailing during the screenings.

Wonderful Town is a mix of romance and social realism set in a Thai village devastated by the last tsunami, about people struggling to rebuild their lives after the tragedy.

The Aditya Assarat's (3 Friends) solo directing debut is a touching film with powerful cathartic qualities. Ton (Supphasit Kansen) is a Bangkok architect sent to oversee the building of a new resort. The only guest at a spartan hotel, Ton is instantly attracted to its Thai-Chinese owner Na (Anchalee Saisoontorn). A reserved woman with a city education, Na appears unresponsive to Ton's polite overtures at first. But via a beautiful series of snapshots showing Na touching Ton's clothing and listening to him sing in the shower, she is able to externalize her true feelings. (...) Leading the voices of disapproval at the couple's flowering romance is Na's brother Wit (Dul Yaambunying), who heads a gang of motorbike-riding no-goods and calmly tells his sister he's a hopeless case for reform.

Yao Anlian (Shanghai Dreams) is Song, a man who returns to his village after five years away working to find he’s been officially registered as dead by his 17-year-old son, Yongtao (Lu Yulai, Peacock). In Song’s absence, his wife has fallen sick and died, and Yongtao mopes around, scarcely talking to his dad. Song sets out with a friend, Yongshan (Shi Junhui), who owns a red combine harvester, to cut wheat in surrounding fields. Yongtao reluctantly joins them but remains surly, at one point almost running his dad down with the harvester. Yongtao shows interest in the attractive but slightly trashy young owner of one field (Huang Lu, Blind Mountain). Thinking she’s a hooker from the city, Song offers her money to bed Yongtao, a misunderstanding that doesn’t help the father-son relationship one bit. But as the harvesting season wears on, and a recurrent back problem plagues Song, the two slowly grow closer.

Hong Kong Director Oxide Pang´s new thriller The Detective, it´s about a private detective (Tam, played by Aaron Kwok), that is hired by a guy nicknamed Fatty, to find a lady who wanted to kill him. He gives Tam a portrait of the lady without any further details. Tam identifies the lady as Sum, a mahjong player. The detective starts tracking her whereabouts through her mahjong playmates, but is shocked to find each of them murdered every time he is about to be in contact with them. He discovers a half-burned photo at one of the scenes. Tam realises the suspicions behind the deaths and decides that he has to protect the next target of the invisible murderer. The photo is the only clue for Tam to uncover the case.